Akatsuki Bared For Vengence - A Log Horizon Fanquel
by Fictioneer
Summary: Akatsuki's back home IRL at last thanks to The Great Crash, but what happened in Akiba won't stay in Akiba, namely all her embittered vanquished foes who know this time she's just an ordinary mortal who's no ninja and can't respawn...


Akatsuki Bared For Vengeance

By FanFiction Fictioneer

Note: As a commuter weaving "iPhone" prose, I'm no pro but still try to be as "canon" as possible with manga titles, but must take liberties to advance a unique perspective. Thanks and enjoy and comment.

"Hello Akatsuki!"

With a startled jumping gasp at the sudden burly jeer behind me in the vacant dorm hallway I whirled from inserting my key in my door so fast that I slammed my back against it and looked up high at a bearded man's sardonic grin bearing down.

"What's this? Bold fearless Akatsuki cringing like a mouse? My my!" he leered, looming like a mountain before me. It was bizarre that in that first moment I was jarred awake that I still had that instinctive fear all women have of being cornered alone, especially with my stature nearly being eye-level with his belt buckle.

By blind reflex a desperate command flashed my mind and my body instinctively braced -

Huh?

Nothing!

I'm still here!

Again, Shizuka, again!

Nothing!

I ought be in the stairway landing at the end of the hall, instantly leaping far ahead of his ever chasing me outside in dark twilight, but I was still here - alone in a lone apartment hallway after my late part-time job with a brute looming over me who seemed to noticed my instant of appall and bewilderment and guffawed.

"HO! Can't pop out and away now, can you, eh Akatsuki?"

Omigosh!

He knew of my Sneak teleportation skill!

Which reality rendered nonexistent.

Suddenly I felt very alone, very tiny, very terrified.

I had a flash of fighting back but doubted my storefront kendo skills would repel this hulk of a brute who could deck me with one wham of those huge clenched fists in a moment. Maybe that dread disarmed my reflex to scream...or maybe by a hangover from these last few years of scorning women who did.

He glared down at me with a mix of scorn and fascination. "Cute! You kinda do look just like Akatsuki 'cept her purple hair 'n big violet eyes, still tiny as a kid..." His leering amusement gave way to a disdainful smirk. "So you're the puppeteer inside that li'l kunoichi kitten bitch, eh? You - Akatsuki? What a friggin' letdown!"

Something in his voice did a magical swap, switching my near terror with a weird sense of belittlement.

Wait!

Only now I just realized he kept calling me Akatsuki. A name I hadn't heard others say for weeks since the Great Crash. So he knew I was - used to be - Akatsuki!

But who?

Most everyone in Akiba heard of my kunoichi avatar Akatsuki, but only a tiny handful there knew my real first name and none I was certain knew my family one to even start a search in real life. My bewilderment breezed over fear and he smiled as though reading that on my face and stooped face to face as if with a child - which was his mocking intent.

"Can't believe such a tiny mouse was such a friggin' pain-in-the-ass tiger back there! Almost takes away the joy of a sporting kill!"

Omigosh!

He's out to avenge a grudge from another world!

He's - going to kill me!

He frowned and nearly spit snickering as he rose. "Stop cowering, bitchette! Why the hell would I cheat my manhood and revenge waxing a mousy wimp like you?"

I blinked aback. I never thought a vain insult under mortal peril could stiffen one's spine, yet it did. In that odd moment I actually relaxed almost relieved. He loathed me but wasn't going to hurt me - yet.

"I - I don't know you," I stammered with a bolstered shaky spine.

"Too bad. I remember you well, Akatsuki. Very well. See, you hurt me one. Very badly."

"I'm not 'Akatsuki'," I pressed and he smirked with grudging disdain.

"You're right. You're now just her loser sniveling caterpillar, Shizuka. Oh, yea, I've studied you long and hard, Shizuka Haneruka. How long I sought just one tid-bit to track you down! I had to bribe the shrinks at the Elder Tales Rehab clinic that I and Akatsuki were snug in-game marrieds cast asunder by our fluke freedom before they weakened and dropped me your address. Don't smirk, it worked, bitchette. Anything to see Akatsuki bite the hard bloody dust instead of escaping in a goddamn flash of bubbles!"

"So you were there!"

"Of course dumbass. Surely you remember - 'Merry Christmas'?"

I blinked in momentarily puzzlement before memory sunk past my fear and my eyes grew even wider. "No!" I gasped. "Can't be! The serial killer? Nelles?"

"Enbart Nelles in the flesh, bitch."

"But - but he - you - were a person-of-the-land! H - How'd you escape here to real life?"

"'Escape'?" He bellowed with mocking laughter. "That's as hilarious all the insane theories of what happened to us when obviously some busted Atharva programmer went postal and hijacked the Elder Tales' VRMMORPG debut and sealed everyone logged-in in that booby-trapped cybernetic cage till the damn system crashed a month ago!"

"So how - ?"

"Isn't it obvious, bitch? I never was a souped-up NPC!"

"What?"

"Why do you think the Round Table secretly sedated me and shipped me off out of sight and mind in some Susukino dungeon? Because it getting out that I was really an adventurer posing as a land folk royal samurai after all that accusation would've been a great insult to the damn proud royals and taken back your trust a hundred moons. But the dirty secret beneath that is the king's subjects weren't all that content living outside the kingdom's walls among the beasts and goblins growing stronger every moon and ravaging farms barely feeding their own tillers. All that forgotten misery and discontent just ripe for a champion to lead them and their families the way back inside the walls, and as a former history major I knew just what mistakes not to repeat in cultivating peasants and serfs and vassels into your subjects and army. I was just on a roll doing that once I joined the royal guard to gain access to enchanted armor then a sword to make me unique as a leader before that accursed Akatsuki rained on my parade and derailed an overdue revolution in that world! Now it's time for her to pay the Piper."

"But - but why really kill me? I - I mean I didn't kill you even when I won the fight and knew death was permanent for a person of the Land because we knew you were rampaging under the influence of Lugrius' spirit in Byakumaru until my new katana broke it in your hand."

"You did me no favors breaking that sword, you tiny twerp! I was trying to control Lugrius for myself! I would've been the invincible samurai - the Yamato shogun I strove to be if that blade's damn spirt weren't so stubborn! I just needed more time for my will to saddle it and bend it's powers to my desire."

"In the meantime terrifying a whole city with random killings the worst of times!" I mindlessly gushed with careless bitter vehemence. Nelles smirked and shrugged.

"Huh! All those "adventurers" were all just peons shifting furniture in the ashes, just like the Round Table. They had no concept of rebuilding a kingdom out of the ruins! No thought of building castle bricks out of the rubble! They were just the old world status quo in medieval drag! With an enchanted sword that knows no enemies I could've led Land followers to inspire those from our world who weren't content with living in a shattered realm! Strength rallies strength and -"

"Napoleon," I mindlessly muttered too aloud and gasped back at his raised hand. "I'm - I'm sorry! That's - that's how they would've seen it locking you up! I knew nothing about all that - honest!"

Nelles eyed me skeptically then lowered his hand, "Good save, Hanekura. Too bad you're such a shrimp or I'd bounce you around without feeling like a drunken bastard like my old man. In fact, you would've made one nice looker all grown normal with long gams and cute boobs," he quipped, smiling at my mindless blush and sge glowered. "But that's not going to save Akatsuki. She hurt me a lot, Hanekura. A lot. More than even my pride and manhood but all my plans. Killed my rule in the bud! I can't tell you how much I hate her. I even promised myself that when I kill Akatsuki that I'm going to cut her heart out and eat it raw while it's beating like a Mayan priest."

My eyes went wide with petrified fear, fear clogging my mouth from screaming but he only smiled at that and rose erect as though shrugging my fear.

"Relax, Hanekura. I wouldn't do that to you even if I were starving in the middle of a desert with you. Not with a miserable dorkette like you! That'd be like proving my macho by swatting a moth instead of slaying a HAWK! I want to shred Akatsuki herself in action to bloody ribbons. I want the pleasure and satisfaction of destroying her in her full glory, not squashing her pitiful mousy caterpillar!"

Nelles grinned at my instinctive wince. "Yea, you miss being her, don't you Hanekura? Here, you're just a cookie-cutter co-ed loli freak, but back in Akiba you were superbitch, admired and swift and deadly, the right-hand hatchet-loli to a nerdy wizard." He stooped before me as though to deliver a treat; "You know he ran off the clinic along with that cute middle-schooler you were so jealous of, right?"

I blushed aback and nearly impulsively blurted that it was a lie, but then the authorities were so hush-hush about the Elder Tales Event and all involved so isolated from another in therapy that I all I got were wild rumors. Shiroe was as clueless that Minori had the hots for him as he about me - Akatsuki me, but then maybe something really did happen between them when they were away together on that mission to Orgehiem and if so, that even further twists the knife in my heart that he'd dare chose a child over me...

"That's - a sick joke," I managed to rebuff and he chortled and straightened.

"At least I got my pound of flesh off Akatsuki's caterpillar, but all I really want is to crack that goddamn hornet of a butterfly outta your mousy cocoon, Hanekura!"

"You - want us to go back VR?" I asked with misgivings and hope but he snickered.

"Why? And have Akatsuki pop out of a damn cathedral each time I slay here? No, I'm talking permanent death here. IRL!"

Fighting fear I blurted; "Like you said, killing me in the real world isn't going to cure your revenge and will only cause you far more trouble with the law than I'm worth, so you should be satisfied enough that you've given me nightmares for the next few years!"

Nelles shook his head and stooped again. "No, drop the crocodile tears, shrimp. I'm not gonna be cheated taking down Akatsuki! I waited too damn long for that! Akatsuki and I will be going toe-to-toe and only the survivor walks away."

In a werid way I knew that my present person was safe from his wrath and reckless blurted, "What if I refuse?" and he sneered.

"Don't test me, Hanekura. I'm not going to let Akatsuki escape me by your death. You'll cooperate so Akatsuki and I can finally dance our waltz of death!"

"Nelles, you haven't killed anyone for real yet! Why ruin your life taking mine? Look, I won't tell anyone about this if you just leave me be - I promise!" I said, turning to unlock my door before he pulled it shut.

"Don't get cocky on me, Hanekura! Don't think for a moment that I don't know that if we were suddenly back in Akiba for just five seconds your katana would be sticking out my back!"

No sense lying to a perceptive murderer. The only thing I can do was plead madness to listen to reason.

"Lo - Look Nelles, I - I can't grant you the showdown you want! I'm just not Akatsuki in this world! Everyone's character talents were endowed full and automatic in the game no matter how unskilled you were IRL! But I haven't any ninja skills or powers here and my storefront kendo training is no match for you! I don't even have the same wild mindset I had back there! You'd just be killing an ordinary Akatsuki cosplayer, not 'her'!"

"Quit whinin' fer petesake! Your soul is Akatsuki's soul and that's all I need to work with, Hanekura. Even if I have to recreate Akatsuki from her creator's clay!"

"Huh?"

"First, I need your cooperation. Can you spell 'Hibiki'?"

I gasped and froze in horror.

My little sister - who for all intents and purposes was my Big one to my cursed condition.

"What - What's she to do with this?"

"Relax. Nothing's happened to her - yet. That all depends on you, Hanekura. Oh, I should inform you that if the police pick me up or I disappear, my 'associates' will see that your big little sister is playing Russian roulette each time she leaves the house - comphredere?"

"Ba - Bastard!" blurted from my lips and Nelles grinned and gave me an envelope.

"That pricey doc looks authentic enough to convince your family that you've been gifted a year grant to study animal grooming in Brazilla starting next week and you're so elated to comply."

I shook my head in disbelief and dismay. "A - A year?"

"It should take you that long to get Akatsuki's moves up to speed. You might not be plugged into all the skills and talents that Akiba's magic ether gave you, but once you learn to ride a bike you never forget, no matter how long or kind."

"I'm not going to Brazil, am I?"

"Smart chickette."

"You're kidnapping me! Making me a prisoner!"

"I ain't jailing you in some dungeon, Hanekura. In fact you'll even be making cell calls home free and clear if you wish - but you understand the consequences of reneging on our deal, right? The date and time for your pick-up is on the envelope."

"Like a lamb to slaughter. You know I have no chance!" I rued and he stooped to lift my chin.

"No, no I'm not into shooting fish in a barrel. I'll give you more than the fair chance you ever gave me or my - associates. Don't simper. You brought this on yourself, Hanekura. You chose to be an assassin knowing well just what that means! You chose to dance in harm's way butting into other people's business. Akatsuki should've left things well enough alone when I killed her Christmas Eve, but no, she kept taking gleeful pride taking down people like me. She even made a sport out of it. You might call me a devil but Akatsuki was a butcher with a blood lust beyond any robber or pirate I was. She cared wilt of the pain and misery her blades inflicted, so I'm calling the Piper..." Nelles paused to lewdly scan me tress to toes.

"But let it not be said that I'm being a brute piling on a lone little mouse. I'll give you the choice of choosing life over likely death. All spruced up you'd make one lovely loli ward, Hanekura. Best of all, a legal loli..."

I blinked aback and shook in appall before stiffening with outrage. "I rather fight!"

"And so you shall, Akatsuki!" he said, standing, "Don't miss the date!" He said, marching down the ahall, leaving me shaken and even rueful by his candor and perception. It took a half minute for my rattling key to find the keyhole and I barely made it to drop before the toilet to puke, my shaking ebbing terror being replaced by hypocritical shame because in another life my formidable skills and abilities allowed me to haughtily detest signs of weakness and fear.

Welcome back to mortal urban life, Shizuka.

# # #

The cab that picked me up a week later after hugging mom and Hibiki good-bye didn't go to the airport as they thought but dropped me off at a mall parking lot where Nelles strolled up and tossed my bags and me in back a van which drove long hours into the night and arrived at a small vacant camp in the mountainside forest. At least it looked vacant before three people came out a cabin, two very elderly types and a spindly taciturn woman tailor who took a whole hour measuring me front and back and up and down in the most bizarre fashion before Nelles introduced me a hairdresser who spent five hours dyeing and weaving long fuller extenders in my now knee-deep grape-colored tresses before sending me out to meet Nelles and the two elders.

"Good job. You're almost Akatsuki's twin! The same will be true of your ninja gear, exact one-to-one reproductions of her infamous outfit. Take care of it because the beautician's not returning."

"You're spending a lot of money when you could've just cut my throat back home for nothing!"

Nelles demurred, "Hanekura, you're totally blind to the contrast between you and your accursed damned alter-ego, and that's what's sparing your hide right now. If I found you the same Akatsuki IRL as you were in Argos, you'd be in a deep plot after a good delicious battle right now."

"So I should count my blessings that I'm a nerd too," I bitterly quipped and he grinned and faced the men.

"Now, since there's no sport cutting down the dainty dork you are, Hanekura, I'm going to instead train you into your own alter ego to the max to fit my vengeance. Odo and Milo here will be your instructors. Odo is a real old school ninja himself once, reduced to a shopkeeper to survive but no more thanks my previous 'investments'. Milo is a former JDF special forces instructor wanting a better pension. Together they're going to train you to an inch of your life each hour of every day to flesh out and hone and tone back your Akatsuki reflexes and moves in time to meet my hunting mob this time next year. They tell me they'll be able to train you some really fantastic almost magical skills without having to abide rules and regulations and morals. I look forward to it because Akatsuki'll need them."

"What if I can't make the grade?" I protested and he smiled and bent to clasp my chin.

"You can still be my pet, Shizuka. You're very pretty even though your low self-esteem from your size doesn't flaunt it. You're sharp and sassy and spunky when it leaks out your inner Akatsuki and I like that. I'll treat you well. Even groom you into a lady more elegant and respectful than one grooming animals."

"That'd be like - like Akatsuki grovelling to kiss your feet, wouldn't it?" I bitterly said. "How can all this be fair? Forget about me, Nelles; don't you have any concerns for your freedom and life for committing murder once it eventually gets out?"

Nelles guffawed and glared at me. "No, because it'll be perfectly legal and out the open for all to view!"

"Huh?"

He stooped before me as though basking my bewilderment. "You see, you're going to sign up as a contestant playing for keeps with the producers of the New Gladiators web reality show that's exempt from statutes against homicide and suicide like daredevils and prize boxers are. And trust me, Akatsuki has thousands of Akiba fans rooting to see little miss assassin go down. The blood on my hands - Akatsuki's blood - will be rinsed clean by ratings. Not bad for 'Napoleon', eh?"

"What?"

Suddenly all this toil and trouble with his 'revenge' made sickening lucrative sense.

# # #

My crouch precariously teetering on a high tree branch under the full moon, I tried to forget I was fearful of heights, at least in the real world, and tried to shift my attention and knotted guts to jump to a neighboring branch meters away.

"HA!"

I jumped at the shout behind me and lost my balance yet mindlessly gnashed shut a shriek as I tumbled into space, and for instants I only thought of doom before an inner ghost stopped my flailing and whipped my hands into my midnight blue ninja outfit's belt and flung out a line's grappling hook that snagged a branch hurtling past and suddenly I was violently jerked to a stop only ten feel off the grass, upside down.

Sweet Mother of Mary!...

I unhitched the hook line from my belt and flipped the few feet to the ground and landed on my feet.

"Excellent! You didn't scream!" Odo suddenly uttered behind me, and I was still suprised came after me so fast, maybe like an monkey swinging down every branch after me. "Your gag reflex assures that an enemy's accomplices can't track a cry or scream to your location in the dark even after a covert attack."

"You mean ambush! Master - I could've died! Or at least been crippled Who could've told mom?"

"What matters is your responses to surprise attacks are automatic now. Excellent!"

"And if they weren't you'd be cheating Nelles of his revenge!" I sourly quipped and she shrugged.

"It is enough for him to know that the inner Akatsuki in you is desperate to recover her former self. That fear is enough recompose for any mishap in achieving that goal."

"I'm not Akatsuki. I'll never be that quick or sure or sharp anymore."

"You will be. You have to be." Odo said and waddled away, leaving me to shake my head look up the towering tree where my grappling hook was snared a branch several stories up. A tree I never would've dared climb before IRL - never had!, but looked at now with an odd shaken triumph before squirreling up again to retrieve my line in a fraction of the time it first took months ago.

No, I'm not Akatsuki - yet.

I felt a strange exhilarating excitement bordering cockiness which I shouldn't ever allow but I had to bask in some sort of self-celebration in having graduated from the Shizuka who was surprised and scared out of her wits by Nelles a year ago. Today I could sense his lurking danger around the corner or his sweat in the air and have the skills - mortal skills - to slip away and stalk and deal with that threat. The bizarre thing was that the skills and moves Moto and Oda were drilling me felt so hauntingly familiar, like I was repaving those I wielded as Akatsuki in Akiba.

A year ago I inwardly scoffed at Nelles' bicycle analogy, but it proved startlingly true and indeed, that's what my teachers were banking on. Though my combat arts in Akiba didn't exactly mirror real-life, the honed reflexes and instincts of Akatsuki's exploits there lingered still to adapt and wield real-life martial arts under relentless training which began each dawn with a mountainside jog loaded with bricks in my back-sack then swimming across the icy pond - after being taught to swim in three weeks - then walking a tightrope raised a foot every week then training in pieces of karate, kung fu, taekwondo, Muay Thai, Silat and acrobatics and weapons, and come deep night there was no rest for the weary when I was left stranded in forests with real wolves and bears that forced my urban atrophied senses to prick my ears at the slightest sound and strain eyes at the most flitting of shadows and to whiff any telltale scents of danger on my way home where I writhe in agony on my futon from aches and strains.

"Of course it hurts, Shizuka-san!" Milo chided. "We are hammering and tempering steel into a katana!"

"My muscles feel like jello, not steel. Nelles has too much faith that I won't stumble just reaching the starting line. A night ago a pack of wolves nearly ate me hadn't I scampered up that tree in time!"

"So now you know better to smell and hear before you see."

"I'm not a fox-girl, master."

"You're better. Become the shadow in the night, Shizuka-san."

Easy for him to say a year ago, but then it was awesome that now after all that honing and toning muscle and nerve I'm as close to being Akatsuki again as reality allows. I can't teleport at the speed of thought like in Akiba but I could dash behind nearby trees and bushes and corners like a flicked trigger or leap between tree branches like a flying squirrel and stealth into any shadow without having to think how or or where, just will my body to auto-pilot my command.

Overtrained.

Overskilled.

Overwhelm.

I'm more than different from last year. Just like finding confidence and empowerment being Akatsuki in Akiba, I've recovered it now IRL. What was at first a prison to me became a crucible for an awakening and inner tempering I never though possible and I long stopped trying to create secret hints for help in my cell calls home. I wasn't here primarily to spare Hibiki's life anymore; I dare confess I'd stay to further evolve far beyond my once-self even if Nelles released his threat. But I can't forget what all this grueling training was for, and it reminded me of the hardest part, especially being a student in animal grooming, to use my shiny blades to lob off the heads of deer and rabbits and slitting the throats of wild boors pounced on from behind.

"Master -" I ruefully asked Milo, "You don't really expect me to really do such to - people?"

"As a proven assassin you've done such many times before."

"But in Akiba in back of my mind I knew they'd respawn in a church! That I wasn't really killing!"

"Your qualms are moot to an enemy intent on separating head from torso, Shizuka-san. You should ask yourself why you chose to play a shinobi to begin with."

It should be simple answer - because it was playing out a fantasy. But was it that simple?

No.

Because admittedly I was weak and timid IRL, but not because I hadn't tried to fix it. My preteen stature not only robbed me of serious adult friends and romantic regard and self-esteem as an adult but my own self-image as a young woman. My unreinforced docile ego allowed Hibiki swap sibling rank to not only became my senior in size but demeanor who urged me to major in pet grooming at Yamazaki Gakuen University as a profession that minimized humiliating social contact yet fulfilled the same emotional needs as their owners. I badly desired to be seen as the adult I was but my underdeveloped body and casual society conspired to mostly regard me as a quaint prodigy and a pervert's object of attention; an adult in a child's body without the wardrobes other women lavished and who only scantily used make-up to look less child-like in official circles. Skittishly I took up kendo more as a distraction from my plight and fate than any real exercise or self-defense lesson.

It was during the college's club recruiting day I learned of the new VRMMORPG craze at the computer club table, and the idea of assuming, if only briefly an entirely new persona to escape my sober reality, hooked me. Unlike other games, Elder Tales didn't construct a avatar from a real-life renderings free which is why you more or less resemble your IRL body in the game, but when I was offered a paid ninja persona by a student leaving the game from illness I accepted it, even though it was a male ninja.

Actually I welcomed not purchasing a avatar construction kit because it would've been far too depressing creating my fantasy idealized self, and maybe it was a warped subconscious thing, it felt vengeful posing a strong and powerful male, like diminishing all the boys and men who overlooked and even scoffed at me as a friend much less a love interest. I was Akatsuki, a man and hero better than other men and women too, who mostly lightly regarded me a little sister or a cute mascot. So it was ironic that being sealed and steeped in a suddenly fully live and sensible avatar by The Apocalypse frightened me of losing what little self-esteem as a woman I had and wasn't the 'bathroom' excuse to change that I gave Naotsugu and Shiroe who saved my sanity and self with his Appearance Reset Potion

I didn't call Shiroe my Lord lightly...

How could he fall for that perky middle-schooler?

Unless - she really wasn't one IRL. She certainly had feminine wiles far beyond her years...

I vehemently shook my head.

No.

Speculating hurts, especially since I received no word from Shiroe during my stay at the local Elder Tales Survivor rehab. The authorities were almost fanatical about isolating us from another so not to stain or corrupt another's accounts during our long debriefing. You gathered that their great fear was whatever technique the madman used to override a VRMOORPG to trap thousands of minds for years in a hyper-network could be used to paralyze millions for even more pernicious purposes so every player's idenity was sealed and classified and unless you spilled the beans about your real life in Akiba no one knew who really were. Akatsuki - I - was skittishly on the cusp of doing so with Shiroe in a last ditch play to distract him from taking a long duo quest with Minori then the Great Crash released us to wake up wired with sensors and intravenous in clinic support beds.

So how could you run away with Minori unless she or you confessed your real lives and arranged a contingency rendezvous before the crash, Shiroe?

Why couldn't you tell me first, my lord?

# # #

One day shortly before my training year ended Nelles dropped in and grinned like a drooling wolf at me in my kunoichi outfit.

"Fantastic! Right out of Akiba to a 'T'! And I hear you've the skills to match, Hanekura. Milo claims you could take on two JDF commandos jumping you from nowhere now."

"A lot of what I do just by mindless reflex scares me," I rued before mellowing with a quietly desperate genuflect. "Nelles, I - I profusely apologize for all the suffering I put you through. I don't want to compound it by causing you to things you'll regret in this life like taking mine. I'm not worth staining your soul, Nelles. Free yourself and feel vengeance that you'll haunt my dreams forever."

But he snickered. "Is that a velvet glove way of saying let's bury the hatchet? Sure - in Akatsuki's skull! I gave you an alternate out, Hanekura, but seeing Akatsuki now as big as life is just too tempting to swap for a lovely loli pillow. I came here to give you the final ground rules. One, no tricks to cheat my revenge. If you have ideas of suicide by combat to avoid a full blown fight don't try it. My associates will me monitoring all we do very closely and penalty will be grave to those you love. Second, in case you mistakenly believe that this score with Akatsuki is only limited to these mountains but take in what villages and towns in them too."

"You're involving innocents?" I balked and he shrugged.

"There might be some if it takes that to flush Akatsuki out, so I'd try to stick to the forest and hills if Akatsuki wants to avoid excessive collateral civilian damage and game penalties."

"I don't want to kill! I don't want to maim! I don't want to hurt anyone! I'll fight you as a bout but not a death match. Surely that'd satisfy you!"

Grinning, Nelles stooped before me. "You're missing something, Hanekura. I'm far from the only one Akatsuki's insulted and humiliated. They all want a piece of her to chew with relish. Some of them have even hired private detectives to track down Akatsuki's true identity. Some might already know who Akatsuki really is, who your mother is, your sister..."

Despite my steeled spine it shivered.

"...Now even though they all called on me because of my interrupted plan that Christmas, I can't herd cats, Hanekura, but they agreed that'd it make great sport hunting and taking down the object of their discontent and leaving your family alone like even mad Capone did. They're paying me good dough to recreate Akatsuki here and you've delivered. Now, to be fair you won't be overly mobbed. If your skills are all your past and teachers bone up to be, you'll have a more or less fair chance to whittle down your opponents till the next tag team. Don't scowl, Hanekura, even if it looks pretty on you. There's a cold vicious tigress 'neath that kitten facade of yours that you once let loose in another world and will again here. The next time we meet you'll be alive just enough to watch me slice through Akatsuki's armour and ribs to tear out her beating heart!"

He coldly turned and matched to his car.

"You're cheating your revenge and wasting my life by just sitting back and watching others take first crack at me, Nelles!" I bitterly cried and he turned and smiled.

"No. I have that much faith in Akatsuki's savage skills, Hanekura. To own her atop a hill of her latest victims will make her heart taste all that much sweeter!"

"Wait, Nelles - a final plea please! - and I promise you a fight you'll never forget! Please see that my mom and sister never hear even rumors who Akatsuki really is. I beseech you - warrior to warrior."

Nelles smiled at that ring and deigned me a nod. "You were swept away crossing a raging river while delivering someone's pet, Hanekura. Will that suffice?"

I sighed almost limp with bittersweet relief. "Thank you, sir."

"Just make sure Akatsuki pulls all the stops, hear?!" Nelles coldly demanded then he was gone, leaving me flustered and shaken. Milo slipped behind me and dabbed my dewy eyes.

"If it's any consolation, Shizuki-san, most all the opposition facing you were criminals and miscreants long before Elder Tales. There was no background check for beta applicants if you recall. You'd be doing a great civic duty executing Nelles' desires."

"That pun's supposed to make me feel better?" I bitterly said though I was - a little.

"One had to be a rotten apple to deserve Akatsuki's blade the first time, yes?"

"So you want me to see my enemies here as coldly as I used to, without remorse or regret even though there's no respawning this time?"

"Only then shall you truly be Akatsuki - and prevail."

# # #

FIN-1


End file.
